


No More

by Redmoog



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Acceptance, Alternate Universe, M/M, Multi, Pride, Transgender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 10:46:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19392523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redmoog/pseuds/Redmoog
Summary: Izumi, as most people know, is not a very nice person. He tends to be rude and speaks his mind almost all the time.Arashi gets a piece of his mind and some things happen.





	No More

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taiyakeo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taiyakeo/gifts).



> My tenses are everywhere! So am I, incidentally. If I got their characters wrong please let me know and tell me how I should have made them. I’m not actually into Enstars, so I’m not familiar with the characters.

When Izumi had dated Arashi, he hadn’t expected Arashi to actually be a girl. 

He remembered saying some things that he should’ve left unsaid. They’d both said things they regretted. And now it was too late. 

He thought about Arashi shivering, his—her lovely purple eyes wide with shock, with anxiety, with fear. It hurt Izumi to see Arashi like this, and he’d been the one to cause it. He felt, quite simply put, like an ass. 

He was an ass. 

Izumi rubbed his eyes roughly with both hands. When he opened them again, the phone screen still challenged him with its glaring brightness, a point of hope surrounded by darkness. That chat was his way to repentance, he knew. All he needed to do was apologise. Right?

He wasn’t so sure about that. Arashi had made it pretty clear that he—she didn’t want to speak to him. 

Izumi’s heart pounded. He started typing a message, then hastily deleted it. He didn’t know what to say. 

Changing his mind, he decided to check Arashi’s profile on Instagram. Perhaps that would give him some clues on what was going on in his—her life. It had been about a week since they fought. Surely Arashi had gotten over their spat.

Sure enough, Arashi had gone out with a friend. This was a boy that Izumi recognised, and recognised well, because he was in Izumi’s class. Sakuma Ritsu. 

Izumi had never really talked to Ritsu before. He didn’t intend to start, but it seemed like he might have to. 

The silhouette of Arashi and Ritsu’s faces shone out at him against a rosy sunset background. They looked like they belonged together. Izumi swallowed his jealousy and told himself he wasn’t allowed to think this way. It’d only been a week, after all. There was no way Arashi had gotten together with someone else so fast.

Still, he didn’t like how Arashi smiled at Ritsu. They looked closer than just friends. 

He was such a fool. His brain called a memory to the front of his mind. 

“Who’re you chatting with?” he asked, peering curiously over Arashi’s shoulder. She’d had no problem showing him then, letting him see her chat with Ritsu. He wondered if she’d still be this open with him when they started talking again. If they started talking again.

And how likely was that? God, he was such an idiot. 

He scrolled through Arashi’s posts for a while more, then sighed and pressed the button that would lock his phone. The brightness withdrew immediately, sparing his eyes from further harm. He closed them and leaned back against the headboard, pondering his course of action. He missed Arashi. He wanted her back. And it wasn’t like he was against dating girls. He didn’t know why he’d been so upset in the first place.

His heart ached and he sighed again. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He decided to sleep, and see how things looked in the morning. He was going to take action. 

•••

Things didn’t look too good. Izumi went to class as usual, tired from staying up so late. Ritsu was asleep, as usual, in his corner of the classroom. The corner fit him, Izumi thought. Ritsu wasn’t someone who paid attention in class. The corner belonged to the dreamy folks. Ritsu was a dreamy folk. 

Izumi watched him throughout class. He could see what Arashi liked about his looks, but not about his personality of behaviour, because Ritsu hadn’t done anything of consequence yet. Ritsu looked rather neat, if you didn’t mind the fact that he tended to put things in his mouth. And that his mousy brown hair had a rather helmety shape. But his eyes…Izumi had never decided on the colour of Ritsu’s eyes. They seemed to change from moment to moment, from scene to scene, from place to place. People said they were just red, plain red like the rest of Ritsu’s family, but Izumi saw more.

He knew there was more. More to Ritsu, more to his story. 

Maybe he didn’t know what he was thinking about. He had a lot to say about some guy he’d never really talked to before. 

His teacher called on him once or twice, or maybe three or four times. He wasn’t sure. “Sena Izumi! Pay attention to me, not to Sakuma-kun there!”

Ghhfhf. Hopefully his staring didn’t seem too weird. But then what did he care? Everyone knew he did what he wanted. 

He tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, but he was too distracted. Thinking about Arashi, thinking about Ritsu, thinking about himself. 

Eventually he resorted to doodling. Doodling sometimes helped him concentrate, though there was no chance of that today. He marked down vague humanoid forms, then gave the vague humanoid forms more distinctive features. He started with drawing Arashi’s spiky hair, then his—he was slipping again—her beautiful eyes. Arashi really had excellent eyes. Or maybe Izumi was just really into pretty eyes. Ritsu and Arashi both had those. 

Did that mean he was into Ritsu? Hell no. That wasn’t possible, now that it seemed Ritsu had taken his place with Arashi. 

Ugh, they seemed so happy. Seeing them together in the hallways tugged at his heart strangely. He had no idea why. It wasn’t like he wanted to be with them.

Arashi obviously didn’t need him anymore. She’d moved on. She was good at that, wasn’t she, taking care of herself. 

Izumi thought maybe it would be better if he just stayed away. He didn’t want to ruin things any more for Arashi than he already had. 

He startled as Leo placed a hand on his shoulder as a form of greeting. “Are you still thinking about her?” Joined by Leo was Makoto.

Makoto and Leo had taken to Arashi’s true pronouns quite easily, unlike Izumi, who still made mistakes at times. 

Since Makoto was here, Izumi couldn’t try to get rid of them. Makoto wasn’t someone Izumi could just shrug off. Izumi liked him. Makoto was cute. Perhaps he could go off with Makoto and be done with it. 

Leo probably hadn’t guessed what he was thinking, but obviously Makoto knew him well enough. Izumi replied, “Yes.” He didn’t want to hurt Makoto’s feelings. To anyone else or Leo alone he may have said something along the lines of, “I don’t recall asking for your commentary on this.” 

“Why not go talk to them?” Leo suggested. As if it was that easy. Izumi snorted and turned away. 

“I can handle this on my own.”

“S-senpai,” stuttered Makoto. Izumi looked at him. Makoto had that sweet, anxious look that he loved to see so much. The blonde adjusted his glasses shyly. “I think you should listen to Leo-senpai,” Makoto mumbled. 

“Why?”

“Y-you miss Arashi-senpai, right?”

“I do,” Izumi confirmed, turning forlorn again. “I wish I hadn’t reacted so badly.”

“Then you can tell her that!” Makoto blurted, immediately blushing with embarrassment at his outburst. “I’m sure she’ll forgive you!”

Izumi smiled. Makoto was so sweet. He pulled his junior close to him. Makoto let out a muffled protest, but didn’t fight the hug. He knew Izumi needed it more than usual. 

He glanced at Leo, who nodded encouragingly and jerked his head in the direction of Arashi’s classroom. 

Izumi shook his head. “I want to do this right. I’ll plan it and make it significant.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Leo warned him. “You won’t always have this opportunity. Sooner or later Arashi will give up on you entirely.”

“I know.”

Leo grinned and ruffled Izumi’s hair teasingly. “But having said that, good luck.”

•••

Izumi scanned his calendar once more. Prom was in a week. He didn’t have a date because Arashi was off-limits and Makoto wasn’t allowed at prom, which was for upperclassmen only. And Leo was dating Tsukasa, so he couldn’t ask Leo to come along either. 

That meant it was time to make a move. 

He opened Arashi’s Instagram page again, deciding to look through her recent posts. He’d stayed offline for most of the time since his last check. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this—targeting Arashi’s profile so specifically—but he couldn’t help it. He missed her. 

He opened his chatting app and prepared to send Arashi a message. What could he say? He almost decided not to again, then he remembered Leo’s words: he might not always have a chance of succeeding at getting Arashi back. Sometime soon, Arashi would label him as one of her bad exes and never think about him again.

‘Hey,’ he started. ‘I’m sorry for what I said. I was shocked and didn’t know how to react.’

Wow, he really was starting to sound mild. 

‘If you don’t mind’—he deleted the sentence starter and tried again—‘I want to meet you tomorrow after school to speak. You can bring Ritsu if you want.’ 

But now he sounded bossy. Oh, whatever. This was who he was. This was how he spoke. If Arashi couldn’t tell that this was his way of apologising, well. That was too bad. 

He sent the message. 

Arashi’s status flickered ‘online’ briefly, and she read his message before going offline again.

Izumi thought it was quite possible that Arashi would ignore his message altogether. 

He went to do some other things and came back to find Arashi typing. 

Arashi typed. Stopped. Typed again. Stopped. Went offline. 

Izumi wanted to scream. He settled for angrily playing a round of some puzzle game Arashi had recommended to him.

His phone informed him of a reply. 

Did he dare to check? No, but he had to anyway. It was better to get it over and done with. 

‘I will meet you tomorrow after school. I will bring Ritsu.’

No flamboyant remarks, no cute emoticons? Izumi’s heart skipped a beat. At least she’d agreed to hear him out. 

Wait, she hadn’t even done that. She’d only agreed to meet him. She could take one look at him and decide not to have anything to do with him. 

Izumi was sighing a lot these days. 

Another lonely night in bed. He wished there was someone he could hug.

•••

The whole of the next day he was distracted again, gazing blankly at the whiteboard while his teacher and classmates tried to get his attention. What the hell did they want with him all the time? Couldn’t they just give him a break? It wasn’t like he was failing his exams, for fuck’s sake. 

Later on, he was early for his meeting with Arashi and Ritsu. They arrived perhaps five minutes later, discussing something so intently they failed to notice him at first. When they did realise he was there, Arashi perked up and seemed like she was about to give one of her usual cheerful greetings, but she changed her mind and clamped her mouth shut.

“What do you want?” Ritsu asked, perhaps a touch (or a lot) more aggressively than Izumi knew he was capable of. It was something that Izumi admired, seeing as it was a quality he himself possessed. Aggressiveness and straightforwardness helped make things more efficient. 

He could feel the sting of those two characteristics now. 

Izumi opened his mouth to speak and hoped he wasn’t committing some major faux pas by saying this: “I think Arashi can speak for herself, can’t she?”

Arashi’s mouth shaped into a gentle ‘O’.

“Nn,” said Ritsu coherently. “Probably. But Arashi is a very nice girl, and we have other places to be.”

So Izumi would be contending with Ritsu. And he couldn’t afford to be too mean, either, or Arashi really would never forgive him.

He made eye contact with Arashi and spoke, softly at first. “What I want,” he said, “is to apologise for how I reacted when you told me you’re a girl.” Slightly louder. “I want you to forgive me.”

“Mmmmh,” said Ritsu. “And you think she’ll do that? Just because you want it?”

“I wasn’t done,” Izumi snapped. “I wasn’t talking to you, anyway. Arashi, I’m sorry. I regret it. I won’t do it again. And…”

“And what?” Arashi prompted him, his—her voice hushed. 

“I love you, Arashi.”

“Oh!” Arashi said, surprised. 

Ritsu shot her a look. “Someone who loves you wouldn’t reject you. I wouldn’t reject you.”

The significance of his last sentence made Izumi’s heart throb. His heart had been doing a lot of weird things lately. 

Arashi worried at her bottom lip, looking conflicted. Eventually Izumi said to her, “I’m not pushing you to reply now.”

Arashi nodded, but she had a storm in her eyes. Izumi wanted to calm that storm, to tame it and own it. He wanted to control the pain that he knew was tearing through Arashi now, pulling her apart. 

Arashi is a girl, he told himself. Arashi is a girl that I love, and I want her back. If Ritsu is part of that package…

He met Ritsu’s gaze. 

…maybe it wouldn’t be THAT bad. 

Who was he kidding. He was possessive. 

“Oh,” he said. “And.”

“And what?”

“If you accept me again,” Izumi began, focusing on Arashi and trying to ignore Ritsu in the background, “I’m asking you to come to prom with me.”

“Prom, huh?” Arashi’s lips curved a little at the corners. “I’ll consider what you said. Ritsu, let’s go get lunch.”

Izumi watched as they left him.

•••

Arashi called him around midnight. It didn’t matter; Izumi wasn’t going to be sleeping anytime soon, anyway. He couldn’t. 

“Sena,” she greeted him quietly. Izumi almost dropped the phone. “Izumi,” she added. “I’ll get straight to the point.”

Izumi was about to say something about how she’d better do that, only just managing to stop himself. 

“I love you too,” Arashi said. Izumi’s breath went all funky for a moment. “I want to be with you again. But I have Ritsu now, so it’s either him or you both.”

Izumi couldn’t quite process this. Arashi was suggesting that they all be together? Huh. He’d been having the same thought on the back of his mind, slowly crumbling his resistance to the idea without him knowing. Great minds think alike. 

“Do you mind?” Arashi asked. That was the question. To be or not to be [with them]—that was the question. 

Izumi almost laughed at how he was hesitating. Wasn’t this what he wanted?

“No,” he told her. “I don’t mind. Then will you two come to prom with me?” Perhaps it was too early for that, with Ritsu and all. 

It was not. Arashi answered at once, “Yeah! We’ll go with you. There’s something I want to discuss with you and Leo, too. And Tsukasa.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll find out.” Izumi could practically hear her smirking. Good for her. All he could feel was relief flowing through his system. 

“Good night, Arashi.”

“Good night, ’Zumi.”

•••

They hung out a few times over the next few days. When prom came, Arashi pulled them all aside, beaming happily at them. She was completely back to normal. 

“I have an idea,” she said. 

“What?” they asked. Demanded, in Izumi’s case. 

“You know that thing we were talking about?” 

Nobody did. 

“Whatever. Basically, we can set up an idol group of our own. No more leeching off everybody else. We’re gonna be entrepreneurs.”

A stunned silence followed her words. 

“Nnh, but I want to sleep.” That was Ritsu.

Prom music blasted behind them. The singer wailed, “Power of my love! Power of my love tonight!”

Arashi whacked Ritsu gently. “This is a golden opportunity!” she insisted. “Think about how much we can get if we succeed.”

Leo was easily convinced. He agreed. So did Tsukasa. 

Izumi wasn’t so sure. But he conceded anyway, just so that it was only Ritsu who was left. Everybody looked at the brunet expectantly, and eventually he relented. 

Izumi didn’t think he’d ever seen Arashi in such a good mood before. It was nice. 

“C’mere, the two of you,” she said, pulling Ritsu and Izumi close to her and kissing them both in the cheek. Leo looked very amused. 

Izumi’s face burned. 

It turned out that being with Ritsu and Arashi at the same time wasn’t as hard as he had been expecting. 

Arashi pulled him into a dance. Ritsu stumbled after them. They didn’t quite manage a three-person dance, instead tripping over each other, but Izumi felt truly warm and happy for the first time in ages. 

They were all together, he had Arashi, he had Ritsu (kind of) and they were starting their own idol group. 

What could possibly go wrong?


End file.
